Some stories from our journey......

Warning: Contents of some of these stories contain graphic images that may be upsetting to some folks.

A Barn Owl

A lady got this Barn Owl (tyto albans) when it was very very young. She refused to give too many details. It appears she decided to put leather straps, or jesses, as falconers call them, around the legs for easy handling. Unfortunately for the Barnie, she did not know what she was doing. She used the wrong kind of leather. When this leather got wet it shrank--shrank severely! After the shrunken leather dried she tried to pull it off the swollen legs and left a horrible mess. Add malnutrition to the mix and this guy was in rough shape.He was started on our fabulous Bubba Chow #3 diet and remained on it for a couple ofweeks. We had change it to Bubba Chow#2 when he began to get rather hefty. He tolerated both diets very well.

The legs were initially cleaned with warm soapy water. We took wash cloths soaked in very warm water and wrapped one around each leg for about 10 minutes 3 times a day. This was followed by an application of a special ointment a vet made for this case. The Barnie showed no distress during these treatments. He actually showed distress trying to stand on a perch with these legs. As the days passed we stopped the warm soaks and continued the rest of the treatment. It took 2 people to do the treatments 3 times a day for almost 3 months. He spent another month in the flight pen learning how to use his legs again.We thoroughly enjoyed seeing him winging his way home to the wild.

Red Tailed Hawk at Fairgrounds

This mature Redtail came to us after being recovered in an old fair ground. The face is severely distorted and the hawk was visually impaired in both eyes.There were 3-4 old puncture wounds on the top and side of the skull. All the wounds were cleaned thoroughly and antibiotics initiated. In spite of our best efforts his condition deteriorated rapidly and seven days later we had to euthanize. We are still unsure of what caused the puncture wounds but they were consistent with the shape of a dog's mouth.

Steel Jaw Traps and Redtails

One of the most bizarre and incredibly cruel injuries we see involves steel jawed leg hold traps. We know that these traps are set deliberately and placed on a wooden fence post where a raptor will land on it. The result of this encounter is plainly visible in both pictures.In the first picture a finger is holding up the stump of the right leg. Notice the left leg is intact. This first year Red tail( notice the brown stripes on the tail) landed on a trap (like the one in the picture) and its leg was sheared off. He had suffered for about two weeks before we were alerted to his condition. He died shortly after we picked him up. He was severely emaciated.

This second Red tail hawk was an older mature bird and had better reflexes than the younger one. This RT almost escaped the jaws of the trap and only lost half of her foot. The mangled foot was a perfect host for a massive infection. The people who called it in said the RT was staggering around like she was drunk. When we picked her up we found copious amounts of very smelly pus oozing from her foot. She was euthanized later this same day. We did make sure she had a good meal before she left.There is no practical purpose in placing steel jawed leg hold traps on poles for raptors to land on them. It is difficult to track the perpetrators, as the crippled bird may fly miles away from the scene of the incident before it is found. If you see someone setting traps on fence post or telephone posts please call your local game warden.It is not unusual for us to receive 2-3 cases like these in a year. That is 2-3 more than need to happen. These birds have enough challenges in life without having to deal with these traps.